Early Symptom Improvement as a Predictor of Response to Extended Release Quetiapine in Major Depressive Disorder

Abstract

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Feasibility and Acceptability of the ‘HABIT’ Group Programme for Comorbid Bipolar and Alcohol and Substance use Disorders

“…As this case series was undertaken to examine feasibility and acceptability, we primarily focus on descriptive data (frequencies, modes, medians and interquartile range (IQR) for qualitative and quantitative variables). We report average number of attendees per session and dropout rates from the programme etc., and to give an indication of degree of change in the MADRS, YMRS and ASSIST ratings over time, we report group mean scores and the number of cases showing clinically significant improvement (defined a priori as a 30% reduction in pre‐intervention scores on the construct being measured (McIntyre et al , )).…”

“…number of individuals meeting diagnostic criteria for each disorder), or at reducing overall level of symptoms (e.g. achieving a 30% reduction in current mood symptoms or in the number of days of alcohol or substance use (McIntyre et al , )). Published randomized clinical trials (RCTs) in BD and ASUD have increasingly examined the use of psychological interventions alongside usual treatments.…”

Clinical characteristics associated with therapeutic nonadherence of the patients with major depressive disorder: A report on the National Survey on Symptomatology of Depression in China

“…Surprisingly, “not treated by another class of medicine except for anti‐depressants in the current episode” was a risk factor for quitting medication. Although we did not find which class of medicine was protective of quitting, which may due to small sample size of each class of combined medicine, we may still infer to some extent, that combined use of other kinds of medicine may benefit patients in many ways, as many studies suggested so, such as better improvements, less side effects, and reduced suicidal behavior…”

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“…This pales in comparison to other chronic disease treatments, such as amlodipine-benazepril, a combination therapy for hypertension, which demonstrates a response rate as high as 87% [5]. Remission rates are reported to be even lower at 30%-40% while around two-thirds of patients will not achieve full symptomatic remission with an initial agent [6]. Furthermore, the residual depressive symptoms for the 60-70% of patients who do not experience remission are very likely associated with the increasing morbidity, mortality and the overall economic and societal burden of MDD [7,8].…”

“…A partial explanation for the low response and remission rates in antidepressant drug therapy is late onset of response and/or poor tolerability. Unfortunately, most first line drugs take upwards of two weeks or longer to take effect [6] and a trial period of 4 to 8 weeks is generally required to determine whether an agent is likely to be efficacious for a patient [10]. For the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor class alone, which is the most widely used first-line treatment for MDD, 27-43% of patients report discontinuing treatment due to adverse effects [11].…”